Security Levels

RUM WAR! The Coast Guard
& Prohibition:

A Historic Photo Gallery

Unless otherwise noted, the following are official
U.S. Coast Guard photographs. The original caption (if available) is
listed below the photo along with any other identifying information.
Comments are listed in brackets.

[The CG-100, one of the 203 75-foot patrol
boats built specifically for Prohibition enforcement duties. They were
known as the "Six-Bitters" and entered service between 1924 and 1925.
They had a top speed of 15 knots, slower than most of the rum-runners they
were up against but were known as sturdy, well-built craft capable of
off-shore operations.]

No caption/photo number; date/photographer
unknown.

[Coast Guard 75-foot and 125 foot patrol
boats--the 75-footers were the backbone of the Coast Guard's Prohibition
enforcement campaign after their introduction into service. The
125-footers, known as the "Buck & a Quarters," entered service beginning in
1927 and were built for off-shore operations, particularly for trailing the
rum running "mother ships" sailing outside of U.S. territorial waters.]

No caption/photo number; date/photographer
unknown.

[CG-403, a 78-foot patrol boat. Six
78-footers were built as a follow on to the 75-footers at a cost of $49,000
each. These craft were faster, with a top speed of 24 knots and one
historian noted that they were "the best of the anti-smuggling boats.
Their hulls were made primarily from white oak and fir. They were
known while in service as the "400" boats.]

No caption/photo number; date/photographer
unknown.

[The Coast Guard Destroyer Tucker,
flagship of the New London Destroyer Force. Originally commissioned by
the Navy in 1916, she was transferred to the Coast Guard in 1926 and served
until 1933.]

LCDR John S. Baylis
(left) and LCDR Robert C. Jewell relax in icy surroundings after
their ordeal."
No photo number; date/photographer
unknown.

[Baylis was the commanding officer
of the destroyer Paulding when she went to the assistance
of CG-238 during a gale in October 1925. The patrol boat
foundered before the Paulding could reach the area, and all
of her crew were lost. The Paulding took a terrific
pounding and nearly foundered as well before making it safely back
to Boston, her home port.]

"Captain Byron
Laverne Reed, USCG, Commander of the New York Division and Captain
of the Port of New York, takes a group of Prohibition officials on
board the USCGC MANHATTAN to observe the Rum-Row fleet, coast of
New Jersey, in November 1924."
Photo No. G-APA-11-20-24
GEN. F.; 1924; photographer unknown.

"RUM SCHOONER: The
schooner ALMEIDA of St. Pierre off the Long Island coast on May 1,
1925. Deck load of contraband is visible."
Photo
No. 6-4-25; 1 May 1925; photographer unknown.

[The Coast Guard Destroyer Ammen
picketing an unknown rum runner. The Ammen,
commissioned into the Navy in 1911, entered Coast Guard service in
1925 and served until May, 1931.

"Rum-runner sloop
KIRK AND SWEENEY with cases and barrels of rum on her deck, was
seized by the U.S. Coast Guard about January 13, 1924. A
generous supply of cases of liquors were kept on deck to save time
when the fast motorboats of comrad[e] smugglers from shore came to
make contact outside the three-mile limit (extended to 12-mile
limit by Act of Congress April 21, 1924). The KIRK AND
SWEENEY was later renamed the CHASE and used as a training vessel
at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the 1930's."
Photo
No. G-APA-01-13-24 (02) G.F.; 1924; photographer unknown.

"A rum runner
afire. The crew of the rum-runner LINWOOD set fire to their
vessel
after being pursued by a patrol boat in order to destroy
the evidence."
Photo No. 5-4-23N; 1923; photographer
unknown.

"One of many
discouraging cases the Coast Guard encountered with court
procedures was the smuggler tug UNDERWRITER which was seized four
times in one year by Coast Guard patrol boats. Three times
liquor was found on board. Each time, however, the tug was
released on bond and went back to her illicit business."
Photo No. G-APA-12-08-24; 1924; photographer unknown.

[An unidentified Lake class
cutter--probably the Mendota--and her capture: the
rum-runner Edna. The Edna was commissioned
into USCG service as the CG-936. She was later intentionally
destroyed by the Coast Guard when she was no longer fit for
service. Note the unidentified battleship in the center
background.]

[Ensign Charles L. Duke carried out
one of the most remarkable arrests ever conducted by the Coast
Guard during the enforcement of Prohibition. While on patrol
in New York harbor, he single-handedly captured the freighter Greypoint
and its crew of 22 in a daring and heroic act. The freighter
carried over a half-million dollars worth of illegal liquor on
board.]

"The crew of I'm
Alone after its sinking. Left to right: Edward Bouchard
(sailor), Captain John Thomas Randall, Jens Jensen (assistant
engineer), John George Williams (mate), Chester Hobbs (engineer),
James Barrett (sailor), William Wordsworth (cook), Eddie Young
(sailor), and Mr. Simpson (British vice consul in New
Orleans)."

[The I'm Alone, flying a
Canadian flag, was a "black" sunk by Coast Guard patrol
boats in the Gulf of Mexico in March, 1929. One of the
rummies was killed in the incident. The Canadian Government
sued the United States for $365,000 and the ensuing legal battle
brought world-wide attention.]

[Horace Alderman, convicted of
killing two Coast Guardsmen and one Treasury officer and also
wounding two other Coast Guardsmen during a boarding and seizure
near Bimini. He was later hanged at Coast Guard Section
Base, Fort Lauderdale. He is the only person ever executed
on Coast Guard property.]

"Captain Frank M.
Meals. As a lieutenant, he was greatly responsible for the
success of radio communications in the fight against the
smuggler."

No photo number; date/photographer unknown.

No caption/photo
number; date/photographer unknown.

[A Coast Guard developed radio
direction finder the size of a small suitcase. Its small
size made it easily transportable. Coast Guard intelligence
operations were one of the many unsung Coast Guard successes
during the "Rum War."]